Section 11
FINAL SUPPORTING STATEMENT
FOR
COLLECTION OF INFORMATION UNDER OATH OR AFFIRMATION
10 CFR 50.54(f)
DESCRIPTION OF THE INFORMATION COLLECTION
10 CFR 50.54(f) of the NRC regulations provides that a licensee shall, upon request by the Commission, submit written statements under oath or affirmation to enable the Commission to determine whether a license should be modified, suspended, or revoked. When the NRC staff has identified a potential health, safety, or environmental or security deficiency at a particular plant or series of plants, the staff may require the licensee or licensees to submit information to evaluate the particular situation and to make a determination whether the situation is serious enough to require that the Commission issue an Order to modify, revoke, or suspend the license to operate a nuclear reactor.
JUSTIFICATION
Need for and Practical Utility of the Collection of Information
The time allotted the licensee to respond to the request for information depends upon the perceived risk associated with the potential deficiency. Most responses will be requested within a 30- to 120-day period.
Periodically there are equipment failures, construction problems, and issues discovered or raised by the technical staff during the safety review and brought to the attention of the NRC through licensee reporting procedures, the safety review process itself, or by the NRC inspection staff.
Since many of the flaws and malfunctions which are detected are novel, there is little data available which would enable the NRC to predict, with certainty, what the consequences might be. To develop a reliable data base, accurately appraise the potential long-term significance of the anomaly, and determine what, if any, corrective measures may be necessary, the NRC must obtain information from licensees. Should the information provided by the licensees show that there is only minor safety significance associated with the deficient area or situation, the facility license would not be modified, suspended, or revoked. On the other hand, the Commission may issue an Order that does modify, revoke, or suspend the license to operate a nuclear reactor.
Agency Use of Information
The Commission requests specific information either from one licensee, on a deficient area or situation believed to be unique to a particular facility, or from more than one licensee on a deficient area or situation believed to be generic in nature, i.e., that may affect more than one facility. Before licensees are requested to provide such information, the NRC staff will have identified the deficient area or situation as one having potential health, safety, environmental, or security significance.
Based on the information obtained from licensees or applicants and the NRC staff's evaluation of the deficient area, new regulatory requirements may be identified. Depending upon the nature of the deficiency and its resolution, these new requirements could be imposed by regulation, or they could be imposed on affected facilities individually by amendment to the technical specifications or conditions of their permit or license (see 10 CFR 50.109, Backfitting). In addition, the NRC could issue a Regulatory Guide which would describe the nature of the problem and the method or methods found adequate by the regulatory staff for its resolution.
3. Reduction of Burden Through Information Technology
There are no legal obstacles to reducing the burden associated with this information collection. The NRC encourages respondents to use information technology when it would be beneficial to them. NRC issued a regulation on October 10, 2003 (68 FR 58791), consistent with the Government Paperwork Elimination Act, which allows its licensees, vendors, applicants, and members of the public the option to make submissions electronically via CD-ROM, e-mail, special Web-based interface, or other means. It is estimated that approximately 85% of the potential responses are filed electronically.
4. Effort to Identify Duplication and Use Similar Information
No sources of similar information are available. There is no duplication of requirements. NRC has in place an ongoing program to examine all information collections with the goal of eliminating all duplication and/or unnecessary information collections.
5. Effort to Reduce Small Business Burden
The provisions of 10 CFR 50.54(f) affect approximately 31 universities (research/test reactors). However, a review of NRC records indicates that bulletins, and generic letters rarely encompass research/test reactors.
6. Consequences to Federal Program or Policy Activities if the Collection is Not Conducted or is Conducted Less Frequently
Without the information provided in the licensee's written statements, timely staff action could not be taken and unsafe conditions could continue to exist, thereby potentially endangering public health and safety.
Circumstances which Justify Variation from OMB Guidelines
The requirements of 10 CFR 50.54(f) normally do not vary from OMB guidelines. Only when the risk associated with a problem affects the health and safety of the public is a response requested in fewer than 30 days.
8. Consultations Outside the NRC
Opportunity for public comment on the information collection requirements for this clearance package was published in the Federal Register on May 14, 2013 (78 FR 28244). No comments were received.
9. Payment or Gift to Respondents
Not applicable.
10. Confidentiality of Information
Confidential and proprietary information is protected in accordance with NRC regulations at 10 CFR 9.17(a) and 10 CFR 2.390(b). However, no information normally considered confidential or proprietary is requested.
11. Justification for Sensitive Questions
This regulation does not request sensitive information.
12. Estimated Industry Burden and Burden Hour Cost
The number of bulletins and generic letters vary and so does the number of respondents and the level of effort required to prepare the different responses. The NRC staff estimates that there will be approximately 1 bulletin and 2 generic letters issued per year requesting information pursuant to 10 CFR 50.54(f).
For non-power reactors, the bulletins/generic letters could involve up to 31 non-power reactors. This would yield 31 responses considering 1 bulletin or 1 generic letter per year. It is estimated that it would take each licensee approximately 100 hours to respond to each Bulletin or Generic Letter. Therefore, for Bulletin and Generic Letter responses an average of 100 hours for each response yields 3,100 hours (31 responses x 100 hours).
For power reactors, the bulletins/generic letters could involve up to 104 operating reactors. This would yield 312 responses considering 1 bulletin and 2 generic letters per year (3 x 104 = 312). An estimate can be made using the historic average of 420 hours for each response. Therefore, 104 operating reactors times 3 responses equals 312 responses at an average of 420 hours each equals 131,040 hours (312 responses x 420 hours = 131,040 hours).
(The total response for non-power and power reactors would be 3,100 plus 131,040 =134,140 hours.)
The Total Estimated Industry Burden for generic 10 CFR 50.54(f) communications would, therefore, be 134,140 hours, and the cost would be $36,754,360 (134,140 hours x $274). Of this, the NRC staff estimates that 90 percent of the burden is attributable to reporting (120,726 hours) and 10 percent to recordkeeping
(13,414 hours).
Estimate of Other Additional Costs
The NRC has determined that the quantity of records to be maintained is roughly proportional to the recordkeeping burden and, therefore, can be used to calculate approximate records storage costs. Based on the number of pages maintained for a typical clearance, the records storage cost has been determined to be equal to 0.0004 times the recordkeeping burden cost. Because the recordkeeping burden is estimated to be 13,414 hours, the storage cost for this clearance is $1,470 (13,414 hours x 0.0004 x $274/hour).
14. Estimated Annualized Cost to the Federal Government
Prior to requesting information from the respondents, the NRC staff assesses the potential problem and identifies the needed information and how the information is to be used. Based on staff experience, the overall burden estimate for the preparation of information requests and analysis of responses is estimated to take 2,500 hours for each bulletin or generic letter since each bulletin or generic letter request for information is carefully justified prior to review by the NRC Committee to Review Generic Requirements. Thus, 3 bulletins/generic letters will involve approximately 7,500 hours (2,500 hours x 3 bulletins/generic letters). At $274 per hour the cost is $2,055,000.
This cost is fully recovered through fee assessments to NRC licensees pursuant to 10 CFR 170 and/or 10 CFR 171.
15. Reasons for Change in Burden
There is a decrease in the overall burden by 6,500 hours from 140,640 to 134,140 hours due to 1 non-power reactor being decommissioned and its license terminated. Additionally, there was also a decrease in the number of expected responses from the previous submittal by 65 responses from 96 to 31 responses. Staff reduced the number of expected responses for non-power licensees, these licensees are expected to respond to 1 bulletin or possibly 1 generic letter not both or possibly more than 1 generic letter, reducing the overall burden by 6,500 hours. There was an increase in the fee rate from $257/hr to $274/hr.
16. Publication for Statistical Use
The information collected under the provisions of 10 CFR 50.54(f) is not used for statistical purposes.
17. Reason for Not Displaying the Expiration Date
The OMB approval number and expiration date are included in all generic communications for bulletins and generic letters.
18. Exceptions to the Certification Statement
None.
B. COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS
Not applicable.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | fxm |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-26 |